Monday, October 25, 2010

Have you ever had a small doubt about anything and then seen something that wiped all doubt away? That's how I feel things have been recently for our family. We really thought we would be living further south than where we purchased our home. We only walked through one home in this city & more further south. I looked at the house first & Mike went through later. When he went through, he really didn't say much. I always felt good about it, but still wondered just a bit if we were making the right decision... especially not being sure of what he was thinking. Then the two of us walked out the front door. He then pointed out the tree in the front yard. I believe it is a birch (could be an aspen). Either way, he suddenly had a tear in his eye. This tree was the same kind that his grandparents had in their front yard while he was growing up, and was a very sentimental thing to him. We have a picture of us, soon after we got married, in front of that tree. Then, I turned around and couldn't help crying myself (and I'm not usually that emotional!!). Right by the front steps I saw just a few little purple pansies. When I was little, my grandpa used to sing a song called "Little Purple Pansies" to me. It was his favorite primary song. At that moment, it really felt like our grandfathers were hanging out together in heaven, looking down at us saying, "Yes, this is it!!"

Fast forward about 2 months. The night we finally got the key to the house was a very rainy one. I went out on the back deck & saw an absolutely beautiful, bright rainbow above the trees with the mountains covered in fall colors in the background. It was like another sign. A sign that things were finally getting better. I know they won't be perfect, but I felt like I could finally take a sigh of relief. My family is where we need to be. I have included the pictures below. Unfortunately both were taken from my cell phone and aren't the best quality, but I hope you can enjoy them anyway.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Last night, I had just gone to bed and was just on the edge of sleep. I then heard a loud crashing sound coming from the other room....the kind that jolts you out of bed. Annie also heard it & started crying. I found 2 shopping bags on the floor in the kitchen that I know had been on the counter for hours, untouched. At the time, I wondered how on earth they ended up on the floor with no one around to touch them. I went back to the bedroom to calm Annie back down. Usually this works with just a Binky. Not this time. She didn't want the Binky & started burping a couple times. So, I got her out of bed to be sure she got it all out. I went to the living room to sit with her for awhile. A few moments later she started vomiting severely. This continued pretty much all night long. Luckily we figured from the beginning that this was very likely a reaction to some new food she had tried at dinner and not the flu. We did the usual, taking care of all the mess. But during all the chaos, I couldn't stop thinking about the shopping bags on the floor. Then Mike pointed out the obvious. It was the holy ghost making sure Annie and I were awake before she threw up in bed, possibly aspirating fluids, etc. You may or may not believe in a holy spirit, but for us, we knew there were greater powers working to protect our baby that night. There was no other explanation. It all made perfect sense. I am so grateful for the times I am able to listen and feel that something just isn't quite right. The Lord works in mysterious ways. He knows best. He is there.